


Just One Dance

by Tangela



Series: Gammahammer [9]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Dancing, Fluff, M/M, Thor is a Big Dork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 12:58:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15267990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tangela/pseuds/Tangela
Summary: The two times Thor tries to persuade a reluctant Bruce to dance with him, and the one time he succeeds.





	Just One Dance

If there was one thing that could calm Bruce down, it was music. Even before the accident, he’d found it to be the best form of stress relief. Mostly classical music, but anything instrumental and not too heavy would do. There was something about being able to lose himself in music that was so comforting to him, especially giving that he had to be in such strict control of every aspect of his life.

When Thor found out that Bruce was fond of classical music, he was delighted. Beside himself was more like it. Bruce was in the lab working as usual when Thor had come in. When he heard the radio, the first thing he did was ask Bruce to dance, which was of course the last thing Bruce had been expecting. He considered the two of them friends by this point. After everything they’d be been through, it would be strange not to, even for Bruce, who wasn’t exactly known for his social prowess. But was dancing something friends often did together? Bruce wasn’t sure. It wasn’t something he’d have thought of. But then maybe things had changed in friendships in the twenty or so years he’d been on the run.

“What?” he stammered, not sure he’d heard Thor correctly.

Thor just held a hand out, as if this was completely normal.

Bruce quickly shook his head, trying to hide how flustered he had become. “No. No way. I’m not dancing with you.”

Thor pulled a face. “Oh, come on, it’ll be fun.”

Bruce was insistent. “No, it will not. I have two left feet and you’ll regret it.”

“Just one dance and I promise I’ll never mention it again,” Thor insisted, “Please.”

Bruce shook his head again and quickly went back to what he was doing, indicating that he was quite finished with this discussion, thank you very much. He sincerely hoped that Thor couldn’t see how red he was.

Thor left it at that. For now.

\--

The next time Thor tried to convince Bruce to dance with him was a few days later. Bruce was in the middle of work, and as per his routine, had some classical music playing quietly in the background to help him think. Thor was hovering around his desk, and had been since the radio was turned on. Bruce had noticed that Thor was spending a lot more time in the lab lately. He chalked it up to Thor just being bored.

_Don’t go giving yourself an ego, Banner._

Thor sighed wistfully, trying to stand as close to Bruce’s desk without being too obvious. Bruce didn’t answer him, so he sighed again, louder this time. And again, until Bruce finally caved and asked him what was wrong.

“Oh, nothing,” Thor told him, “It’s just…This music reminds me of home.”

Bruce felt a little wave of guilt for ignoring him. “I can turn it off if it’s bothering you,” he offered quietly.

“Oh no, it’s alright. The melody just reminded me of some of the music on Asgard. We’d have musicians playing at banquets and balls and such.” He sighed again.

Bruce took his glasses off, placing them in the pocket of his shirt as he looked up at Thor. He didn’t look particularly upset. And then he realised what he was up to, a little too late. Spending time with Tony was really rubbing off on him in the worst possible way. He went back to his work.

“We used to dance a lot on Asgard, I miss it.” Thor let out his loudest sigh yet, and Bruce could see from his periphery that Thor was looking at him, trying to get him to react. “You know-”

“Don’t even think about it,” Bruce said quietly, pretending to concentrate on the paperwork in front of him.

“I hadn’t even said anything,” Thor countered, insulted.

“But you were going to.”

Bruce had him there. “I didn’t know you were telepathic.”

Bruce huffed a laugh. “I’m not, you’re just getting predictable.”

Thor pulled a face. “Fine, I won’t ask.”

Today, at least.

\--

The third time Thor asked was when Bruce finally broke. Tony, ever the king of dramatics, was throwing an extravagant party for…Well, Bruce couldn’t keep up with what Tony threw parties for anymore, since he seemed to have an excuse for one every other month. Bruce always said no, but just this once he decided to go. Even for an introvert like himself, there was only so much sitting at home with work he could do, and Tony had reassured him that he’d be safe from any “incidents”.

“I want you to have a good time. Besides it’s black tie, so things won’t get too out of hand,” Tony had said sincerely. “I also don’t want my guests being flung through windows.” That last part was said quietly into his mug of coffee, but loud enough for Pepper to slap his shoulder for it. Bruce just rolled his eyes and smiled to himself. He knew Tony well enough by now to understand that his reassurances often came wrapped up in drier-than-a-desert humour.

From the looks of the place, half of New York was in attendance. Bruce wasn’t aware that it would be quite this big, (although he really should have known – it was Tony Stark after all), and found himself staying by the bar as much as he could. It was easier that way – he only had to keep an eye on one half of the room, and he could always insist that he was waiting for his drink and couldn’t leave.

It was going well for about an hour until Thor spotted him. He tapped Bruce on the shoulder. Bruce turned around, and immediately had to stop every thought about Thor in a suit that came barrelling into his head. He forced himself to look up at Thor’s face.

“Care to dance?” Thor asked with a slight bow, gesturing to the dance floor.

Bruce rubbed a hand over his face. “I can’t say no to you in this situation, can I?”

“No, you cannot. Besides, you’ve already said no twice now. Any more and I’ll get the impression that you don’t like me.”

 _What?_ Bruce almost choked. Like him, what did he mean by that? As friends, right, he had to have meant as friends.

Thor just stood there waiting for an answer, blissfully unaware of Bruce’s frantic inner dialogue.

Bruce managed to compose himself, sliding off the barstool. “Fine, one dance. But I warn you, I’m not very good at it and you’re going to regret asking.”

Bruce wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Thor look so happy before. Gleeful was more accurate. He took Bruce’s hand and led him into the middle of the room. Bruce felt his face begin to grow red. He hadn’t really thought through just how close they’d be. He stood in front of Thor awkwardly, unsure as to what to do with himself.

“I thought you agreed to dance,” Thor said, confused.

“I don’t really know what to do,” Bruce admitted quietly.

“Surely you’ve danced before?”

“Not really. It requires…physical intimacy and I, well…” Bruce trailed off.

“Of course, I didn’t even think. I’m sorry.”

Bruce shook his head. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

The pair drifted into an uncomfortable silence. Bruce wasn’t sure what to do with himself at all, and he used that to his advantage to distract the conversation.

“So, uh, what do I do?” he asked.

“Okay, well, first of all, your posture is terrible.”

“I thought you were dancing me to dance, not insulting me,” Bruce said in a teasing tone.

Now it was Thor’s turn to turn a little red-faced. “No, no, I didn’t mean-”

Bruce smiled up at him. “I’m kidding.”

Thor looked at him. “Right, yes, of course, I knew that,” he replied nervously. He turned back to the task at hand. “Your hand goes here.” Thor took Bruce’s wrist, placing his hand on his waist. “And my hand goes around you like this, resting on your back.”

Bruce was barely listening at this point. All he could think about was how close he and Thor were to each other, and how easy it would be to-

_Focus, Banner._

“And then I hold your other in mine, like this,” Thor continued, oblivious.

Bruce’s hands felt very warm all of a sudden. And sweaty. Were his hands always so sweaty? Or was it Thor?

_Would you please get a hold of yourself?_

He made the mistake of looking up at Thor, and Thor was staring right back at him. The room suddenly felt stifling.

“And now…?” Bruce asked, hoping to God his voice didn’t give him away.

“And now?” Thor repeated.

“What’s next? Because right now we’re just, uh…we’re just holding each other.”

Thor looked as if he’d been pulled from a trance. “Right! Yes, of course. Okay. Watch my feet, and move in time with me, okay? I’ll move slowly so you can keep up.”

Bruce looked down at the ground. “Okay.”

It took a few tries and a lot of apologising from Bruce before they finally found a rhythm. All too soon, the song had changed and Bruce had to get used to a whole new tempo, but he had always been a fast learner, and before long he could take his eyes off the floor and focus on Thor. One look at him and he immediately wanted to go back to staring at the floor. Of course Bruce had noticed how handsome Thor was, but close up…Well, it was all he could think about. It was only after a minute or so that he realised Thor had been talking to him, and from the look on his face, seemed to be waiting for a response.

“Um…I’m sorry, what were you saying?” _God, you’re amazing at this._

“I was asking if you were okay, you’ve been very quiet,” Thor said with a little frown.

“I was counting steps in my head, trying not to lose my footing again.” _Good save, moron._

Thor didn’t look quite convinced, but he didn’t press the matter, and Bruce was grateful for that. He tried to keep a conversation going, anything to distract himself from…well, everything. Especially how warm and strong Thor’s hand felt against his back. Nope, not thinking about that at all. Thankfully Thor was better at social events than Bruce and eventually they fell into an easy conversation, and after a while, Bruce plucked up the courage to ask something that had been on his mind.

“Why did you keep asking me to dance with you?”

Thor looked completely caught off guard, and just like that, he became as awkward as Bruce.

“Well, I um.” He cleared his throat. “I noticed that you had similar tastes in music, and I, well, isn’t that what you do?”

Bruce shook his head. “Not really lab etiquette, no.”

If Bruce didn’t know any better, he’d say Thor look worried. Something was on his mind. Maybe he-

_Don’t even think about it._

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t _that,_ but it was definitely something. Bruce started feeling a little nervous himself and decided to prompt him to speed things up a little.

“Thor…?”

Thor’s next words tumbled out of him in a rush. “You see, the truth of the matter is, I have feelings for you, and-”

Bruce didn’t hear a single word after that. His brain was on overload, trying to work through the first few. Those five in particular. _I have feelings for you._ He had heard that right, hadn’t he? This wasn’t his mind playing tricks on him, telling him what he wanted to hear? Because really, there was no point in trying to deny it to himself anymore. That’s exactly what he wanted Thor to say.

“Bruce…?”

Once again Thor was waiting for a response. What was he supposed to say? This wasn’t exactly where he thought this would happen. Well, he never thought it would happen at all, but if in the smallest of chances it did, in the middle of one of Tony’s blowout parties was not somewhere Bruce had thought of. He knew he was taking too long to respond, and things were only getting more awkward, and God this anxiety was killing him.

_Don’t say anything._

And for the first time in a long time, Bruce and his horrible inner dialogue actually agreed on something. Without a second thought, he leaned up and kissed Thor gently on the mouth. That second thought caught up with him all too soon and he tried to pull away, but then Thor was kissing him back and Bruce was starting to think he’d hit his head at some point in the night because _holy shit this was actually happening._ He was pulled from his reverie all too soon by a voice in his ear.

“I don’t mean to alarm you lovebirds, but you’ve got about thirty seconds to cut that out before you’re all over the internet in an hour,” Tony said out of the corner of his mouth.

Bruce jumped as if he’d been electrocuted, immediately pulling back from Thor to shoot a glare in Tony’s direction.

“Hey, don’t give me that look, I’m trying to be helpful for once,” Tony argued, “Trust me, I’ve done enough stupid things in public to know how out of hand it can get, especially once it gets online. You’ll thank me later.”

He was gone almost as soon as he’d appeared. Bruce looked up at Thor, embarrassed.

“I’m sorry, that was completely inappropriate.”

“Yes, it was,” Thor agreed, “He should have waited until we were finished.”

Bruce laughed. “That’s not what I meant.”

Thor smiled at him. “I know.”

“He’s right, though, it’s bad enough we’re dancing together. People are gonna start talking-”

“Let them talk. All that matters is us.”

“Us?” Bruce repeated.

“You return my feelings, don’t you?”

Bruce chewed his lower lip, suddenly very shy. “Well, yeah.”

“Then that’s all that matters to me,” Thor replied in such a self-assured manner that Bruce couldn’t help but believe him.

“Alright,” was all he said, and it was all either of them said for a while as they danced together.

Thor was right, all that mattered was the two of them. They’d deal with whatever came next when it came. Of course that didn’t stop Bruce from worrying, and they’d have to talk about a lot of things before this could happen. But if anyone could handle Bruce, it was Thor. He pushed it all to the side for now. For the first time in a long time, he felt happy.

**Author's Note:**

> This was based on a headcanon I'd written a while back, and I wanted to try expanding it, although I didn't realise it would be quite as long as this! I do worry sometimes that because I've written so many Gammahammer fics now that all of my writing is starting to read the same, and I hope that's not the case. Kudos and/or comments are always greatly appreciated! My writing tumblr is @maybeishouldwritesomething, if you'd like to send a message or request. Thank you for reading!


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